Dervish, I read your reply, & I want to reply to it 1st. then I will reply to the post itself. Dervish, I've been talking with Panther II & Express-1. I noticed right away the difference between the 2 ...Panther II is seeking teams more than solo's. Express-1 sent O/O's after me right away, while Panther seems to be taking their sweet time. I will try not to push either one here, as I myself am still considering both of them. Panther II has roughly-keyword "roughly"-800 trucks<thats a big operation. Express-1 has "roughly" 150 trucks. Where is that small co. feel your looking for? Panther limit's solo drivers to about 500 miles a day. Express-1 limit's their solo's to about 700 miles in a day. Do the math...In that situation alone, Where do you-or I-have the opportunity to make more money? Anytime I've called Express-1 their office staff/recruiters and the O/O's they've had call me or told me to call have all been very open & honest & taken their time with me. They explain everything. Although at 150 trucks versus Panther's nearly 800 trucks, I suppose thats sort of to be expected. Panther, the few O/O's I've spoken with-so far-have been kind of on the pushy side it seems. The office staff is always in a rush, like they just want to get me off the phone & get on to the next phone line. An O/O there is offering 50 cpm in a '01 Shaker 72" Alumi-bunk condo & they take care of fuel & tolls, however-that may not go thru, so I'm not holding my breath on it. Dervish, I'm not tellin' you what to do as an O/O, however I am suggesting that you do more research into both Express-1 & Panther II. Compare the two-'cause the more research I'm doing, the more I'm finding out why drivers go in & out of Panther so much. Interesting numbers...Panther sees 72 drivers a week in their orientation, Express-1 sees about 35 a week, that could have to do with the size of the fleet though I'm sure, And Both have 2 day orientation's too. Panther pays you $75 for a loaded truck going either way across the Canadian Border. Express-1 pays a premium going into Canada, but not going out. Look into that maybe? Another thing Dervish, is that Express-1 does not haul any HazMat, infact they don't even require you to have the HazMat end. on your license. Panther II does, they require you to have HazMat & they do haul HazMat. As far as the amount of dead-head, the recruiter tells you the max amount of dead-head or the min. amounts of dead-head, so you'll have to ask drivers/owners about that-I've found that in any co., if you run hard and/or good-the amount is generally less. That is to say, if they tell you they have 30-35% dead-head, which is what Panther II has I'm told...if you run hard it'll be about 25% roughly<Key Word. Landstar Express, I've begun talks with them, though it's too soon for me to form an opinion of them yet. Well, thats all for you-good luck Dervish, Later, Bob.
